HMS Web Team

The HMS web team was formed in 2017 with the aim of managing the HMS website. We aim to keep the site up to date, while also constantly improving its content and accessibility so that it suits the needs and wants of our members. Changes in technology and web designs mean we have to constantly review our system. The team has a number of ideas which we intend to implement over the coming years but we would be interested in hearing what our members think of the current website.

If you have any thoughts, comments and/or feedback please email the HMS Web Team.

Meet the team

HMS Shop Manager

Jonathan Prus

His principal interests are the unresolved aspects of bloomery technology, especially relating to draught, furnace thermal properties and slag chemistry.

Born 1950. In teaching for 10 years. Subsequently ran a company providing learning disability services. First degrees in History and Politics, then Life Sciences. Then Ph.D. at Cranfield University. Then an MBA. (The last three by part-time study.)

A member of HMS Council since 2014 and Hon. Gen. Secretary since 2017. An active member of the Wealden Iron Research Group.

Principal interests: unresolved aspects of bloomery technology, especially relating to draught, furnace thermal properties and slag chemistry. A recently developing interest in the interrelated issues of skill, cognition and ideology among ancient ironworkers.

Web Team

William Hawkes

Is a professional conservator and trained jeweller, who has worked on very wide and varied projects, from Roman jewellery to napoleonic field carriage guns.

William Hawkes is a professional conservator and trained jeweller. His conservation practice has encompassed a wide array of work on very wide and varied projects ranging from Roman and Anglo Saxon stone-set jewellery in both precious and copper alloy metals to napoleonic field carriage guns and a D-20 howitzer from the first gulf war. Additionally, Bill regularly provides consultation services to various organisations in relation to researching historic objects and their metallurgy, providing reports for the purposes of preventative and remedial conservation.